Food What's your favorite burger?

Ketchup is for french fries and kids under 10.

That said, I like variety on my burgers. My go to toppings are probably just mustard, hamburger pickles, onion, and cheese (usually American or mild cheddar). But I love making a home made chili cheeseburger (also add mustard and onion to that). You can't go wrong with cheddar cheese, bacon, and BBQ sauce either. I'd argue most burgers are awesome with a sunny-side up egg tossed on top too.

I usually don't want so many toppings stacked on top that you lose the flavor of good beef, but I am really open to most varieties of toppings. Except ketchup.

 

Well, if you're talking about chain stores, then Five Guys...cheeseburger with grilled onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, lettuce and ketchup.

But if given some choice, then I like Red Robin's mushroom/swiss burger.
Sometimes I like a California burger with avocado and sprouts on it. ...maybe with salsa.

If done at home or on the grill, a cheese burger, medium rare...with tomatoes and ketchup.

Hate mustard or pickles on it.

 

I have a burger I make with 50% 93/7 beef and 50% hot ground italian sausage. Add in some cajun seasonings, pepperjack cheese, caramelized onions, BBQ sauce, and serve on an onion bun.

 

Just went to a local burger joint on Friday for the first time. It's in a nearby town, and when we're over there, I often insist on going to Red Robin. Hubs likes it there because he can get any burger made with a veggie patty. I'm glad we went somewhere new--it was better than RR! OMG. SOOOO GOOD. I have to go back. He liked the new place because he can get any burger with a veggie patty, just like RR. Plus, the service was better They do a 50/50 beef/bacon patty that I really want to try next time. They also do what they call a Fattymelt--a burger in between two grilled cheeses. I see myself eating there a lot in the future.

I really like guacamole, pepperjack, and bacon on burgers--but they have to be balanced. I don't want to taste all guacamole or all pepperjack. They have to sing in concert with one another. I also like blue cheese, mushrooms, Swiss, sauteed onions...lots of things. I like burgers. The critical piece is that it can't be overcooked. I like a good burger sauce or secret sauce. My favorite is from one of the brewpubs where I worked as a line cook. It's mayo and Gulden's mustard mixed together.

 

I think that you can make a burger to complicated. I've never cared for those concoctions that consist of a beef patty with the better part of a chef's salad dropped on top. "Where's the beef?" like the little old lady used to say.
I like a burger that's juicy, probably 85/15 beef, cooked medium, with American cheese, onions, (either raw or sauteed with peppers and garlic) and possibly bacon. Plenty of black pepper, not too much salt.
Ketchup and other stuff on the side (or on the table) for me to add if I choose. No mustard. Mustard is for ham, not hamburger. Mayo is good sometimes, but no lettuce or tomato. They belong in the salad that you eat WITH the burger, not ON the burger.
I'll usually only eat the bottom half of the bun, or maybe no bun at all, and use a fork.

And a veggie patty is NOT A BURGER. Nothing against vegetarians, but why turn vegetables into some kind of ersatz meat? I don't understand that. Veggies are perfectly capable of standing on their own, and better that way than trying to be something that they are not.
One weird one that I liked, I had a burger at one of the Italian steakhouses in Omaha, server open-faced, like a chiliburger, but smothered in alfredo sauce with sauteed mushrooms. Sounds dreadful, but it was great!

I know ther's a lot of McDonalds haters on this board, but McDonalds cheap McDouble is really a pretty good basic Bb burger. Have them leave off the reconstituted onions. For $1 they are much better than anyone has any right to expect. Beef and cheese, baby; that's what makes a good burger! And a McDouble fresh off the grill is great!

 

I love a couple of McGangbangs squished together with no bun when I'm on the run. It's easy to devour, and cheap. The town I'm working in only has a McDonald's and a DQ. The line at DQ is usually waaaay too long since it's closer to the school, so I end up at McDonalds once in a while.

 

With all due respect, I think you're imposing your own tastes upon others, rather than upholding any sort of standard (or purism). No one can really confirm what a "true hamburger" is. I've concluded myself that it's more or less ground beef between bread of some kind. (Open-faced would be a no-no ) As for what goes on it, well, much of anything beyond the ground goods and bread are probably beyond its humble origins.

The stance you take on the hamburger is one that I often take issue with because I think its a stance whose aim is to undermine creativity.

That said, there is obviously now a common usage of the word burger that refers to the style of sandwich that includes ground meat patty of some kind (not necessarily beef) with various toppings. There is even such thing as a "veggie burger," though I assume by "veggie patty" you meant those patties made out of grains and vegetables. I'm not so keen on them, but I have enjoyed ground beef analogues made from soy that were surprisingly "meaty." In other words, I've enjoyed what I would consider a "burger" despite it not containing any flesh from an animal. (That was back when I felt bad about eating animals. Now I'm back to my ignorant self and enjoying meat of all kinds.)

I mean, it'd be a different story if the food item was called a "groundbeefpattywich" or "ground beef patty sandwich." But they're not that, or even "beefwiches." They're "burgers," or "hamburgers"—not burgers made from ham, but Hamburg-derived.

Adding mustard, lettuce, or tomato doesn't invalidate the burger—as in, suddenly make it, instead, a "ground beef patty sandwich." I don't know where you get that from, especially since you seem okay with desecrating your otherwise perfectly decent sandwich with that foodlike product called, ironically, "American 'cheese'."

Seriously? When I read that, you lost all credibility in my eyes. Why wouldn't you use real cheese such as goat's cheese, or Emmental, or even a straight-ahead cheddar (if not a nice old cheddar)? You actually go out of your way to put a slice of something on your burger that cannot even legally be called cheese by its manufacturer?

Lindy, I am terribly disappointed in you. For shame....

It's bad enough that you'd possibly choose ketchup over mustard (though I suppose you consider American mustard, that bright yellow shit, as the only thing out there).

 

I feel no shame in criticizing the questionable tastes of mainstream American culture. This is the same culture that brought us reality television, Auto-Tuned pop music, and Dan Brown.

I mean, people should have some standards.